Cat and Mouse
by vicious-kitsune
Summary: When Reno is assigned to follow Vincent he can't help but wonder if he's the cat stalking the mouse or the mouse being stalked. VincentxReno
1. Prologue

_This is my first Final Fantasy VII fic, so any constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Flames however, are not. _

_This prologue takes place during the game, but other chapters will be post game and pre Advent Children._

_I don't own anything Final Fantasy VII related._

Cat and Mouse

Prologue

Cloud had sent them to find their reason to fight. That was easy enough for him. Vincent already knew his reason to fight; he had known his reason since his sleep had been disturbed.

This was his chance to atone for what happened all those years ago. He could have stopped all this before it started. If only he hadn't listened to Lucrecia and had taken his gun. He could have stopped Hojo and none of this would be happening now. Sephiroth and Lucrecia could have had normal lives. Everything would have been different.

Lucrecia may never have forgiven him but that had to be better than the state the world was in now.

It wouldn't really have been better for him, just everyone else he thought as he stared down at off-brown liquor in the glass before him. He had decided that as he had no need for soul searching he would get drunk. After all it had been a long time since he'd last done it and if he was going to die tomorrow he wanted several last drinks.

So after Cloud had finished talking and everyone had begun to disperse he had headed for Midgar. He had found himself walking towards a bar he had often frequented before he was assigned to guard Hojo and Lucrecia. He was surprised to find the place was still there and that nothing had changed. The décor was the same black and burgundy it had always been, the lights as dim as they had always been and the liquor as cheap as it had always been. It was somehow comforting to know that some things didn't change.

He had probably had too much to drink. His thoughts were starting to take strange turns. He wondered about his future, if he even had one. If they won what would there be for Vincent Valentine? He had no family, no real friends as Cloud and the others were more like acquaintances that for the time being he happened to be with.

It was the early hours of the morning when he left. And he had been drinking far too much for a man about to embark on a battle for the planet's future. Instead of getting rid of all thoughts as he had originally hoped as he continued to drink vast quantities of cheap but strong liquor, the alcohol had only made them worse.

Now his concern was whether he'd be capable of human contact once everything was over.

Vincent knew the alcohol was to blame for these thoughts and that in the morning they would be inconsequential to him. But right now, his future, whether he would be capable of making relationships work mattered.

It was stupid and he knew it. But then again most things fuelled by alcohol were stupid.

He was approaching a figure staggering towards him. As they got closer to one another the red hair gave the other away as Reno of the Turks. He was clearly drunker than Vincent as he was leaning heavily on the wall for support as he stumbled along the street.

He pushed Reno up against the wall. He shouldn't have done it, he knew he shouldn't have done it but he couldn't seem to stop himself. His body was working under the will of the alcohol now. The redhead looked at him with confused eyes but made no move to stop him.

He pressed his lips against Reno's. Almost chaste at first but hen he nibbled at Reno's bottom lip and flicked his tongue out to lick at it. Still the redhead made no move to stop him. He just moaned against Vincent's lips and let the older man slip his tongue inside his mouth.

That action snapped him out of it. He stopped and pulled away from Reno, leaving the redhead to continue looking at him in confusion. He left him there, slumped against the wall as he walked away.

It seemed to him that he was not meant to have human contact.

_If you're interested in seeing this continue then leave a review. If I don't get any reviews I probably won't continue as I have other fics I could be working on._

_Also if I do continue this I'll be looking for a beta since I'm hopeless at spotting any mistakes I make and to help make sure I don't warp the character's personalities too much. If you'd be interested you can mention it in a review or send me an email._


	2. The Assignement

_I'm really sorry to have taken so long to get the first chapter done; I can't believe it's been almost a year. I've had a lot of problems in that time so writing fics had to take a back seat to dealing with all of them. Anyway, it's here now, so if you've stuck with this thanks and enjoy._

Cat and Mouse

The Assignment

Reno was sat outside Tseng's office awaiting information on his next assignment. For the time being Tseng was handling almost everything whilst Rufus recovered in hospital. Tseng had been receiving rough ideas from Rufus and then left to sort out the fine details and dispatch the assignments.

Having helped out with the building of Edge the Turks had all been on stand by for a couple of days whilst Tseng finalised details for their next jobs. After getting a call from Tseng saying that he had work for Reno he had hurried over to the office only to have Tseng receive a phone call and leave him sat outside. Finally Tseng appeared in the doorway and summoned him in. Tseng took his seat behind the desk whilst Reno sat in one of the two chairs in front of it.

"At the moment Rufus is interested in Hojo's research. As such I've divided us up into two teams. One will look at what remains of notes from Hojo's research, the other will be following the two known specimens of his research."

"So who am I stalking?"

Reno knew he wouldn't be trawling through pages and pages of research notes. Despite what most people seemed to think of him he wasn't stupid. That didn't mean that he was up to the challenge of trying to figure out anything that mad scientist had come up with. Science had never been his forte; science at Hojo's level was well beyond him.

What Reno really wanted to know was whether he was being assigned to tail Cloud or Vincent. He had a vague memory of being very drunk and pushed up against a wall then kissed by a tall, dark haired, red cloaked figure. There was only one man in all of Gaia that he knew of that fit that description… Vincent Valentine.

Reno couldn't say with any certainty that it had actually happened; after all he had been so drunk that night he'd collapsed on the doorstep of his apartment after being unable to find his keys in his pocket. All he knew was that if it had happened Vincent was the last person on the planet he wanted to be following around.

"You'll be following Vincent Valentine," Tseng announced snapping Reno from his thoughts with the words he didn't want to hear.

Reno knew he should have seen that coming. After all it was sod's law.

"Any chance I can switch to Cloud?" Reno asked hoping his boss was in a good enough mood to oblige him.

"Cloud has already been assigned to Rude and he's already left to start work. It's impossible."

"How come he gets Cloud in the first place?"

"Because he was here first. It's as simple as that Reno. Cloud Strife comes before Vincent Valentine on any alphabetical list so Rude got assigned to follow Cloud."

Reno was left cursing his partner to hell all because he had an apartment in closer proximity to the offices. Reno would have to do something about that as soon as he could. Though considering he was now going to have to trail the enigma that was Vincent Valentine until further notice flat hunting was going to be put off indefinitely.

"These files contain everything we have on Valentine," Tseng said as he handed over a thick folder. "I suggest you go over them very carefully before making any moves. Vincent is probably not going to be quite as easy a target to follow as Cloud."

"Don't need to tell me that," Reno remarked as he took the offered folder and left Tseng's office.

--

Reno sat on his bed with all the files spread out in front of him. His apartment did have a desk for him to work at but it was small and his bed offered him more space. Not to mention it was a hell of a lot comfier than the wooden chair that went with his desk.

He was reading through Vincent's Turk files. Even before he had started reading them Reno had thought this assignment was going to be more difficult than Rude's. Not that following Cloud would be an easy job but following someone who had all the training you had was going to make any job that much more difficult.

This job was going to be a real game of cat and mouse. The only problem was Reno didn't know if he was going to end up being the cat or the mouse.

The more he read of Vincent's files the more difficult it seemed it would be. Vincent had been an exceptional Turk. He had passed training with top marks and completed every mission successfully except one.

Reno could understand why that particular one had caused Vincent problems. If he had had to guard Hojo as the man went about conducted his crazed experiments on an unborn child he didn't now if he'd be able to go through with it either. Hojo had been a mad man without equal.

Everything he had read made him wonder if this mission was even possible. Vincent had been outstanding before. Now that Hojo had experimented on him there was no telling how much his skills had improved by. Would Vincent be able to smell him a mile off because he had a sense of smell as powerful as Galian Beast's? There were so many little things that Reno didn't know and could only guess at, things he was making up because god only knew how much a person changed on just a physical level after Hojo had experimented on them.

Just to make the job even more difficult Vincent seemed to have disappeared from the face of the planet since meteor had fallen. There were a few confirmed reports of sightings of him in the files he'd been given but not much else.

Reno was thankful that at least all these sightings had taken place in the same place. He was not so thankful that there seemed to be no pattern to Vincent's visits to the bar. He could go anything from a week to a couple of months without visiting it.

He realised he was going to have to become a regular of The Marlboro. He wasn't looking forward to that. Even though the bar was close to his apartment he never drank there because to put it simply the place was a dive. He was amazed it stayed in business and even more amazed that it had opened before Tifa opened up her new 7th Heaven.

There was no choice and Reno knew that. He packed up all the files, there was no point reading them again even if he did have several hours to kill before heading to The Marlboro.

--

Reno was sure the bartender kept glaring in his direction whenever he wasn't fixing a drink for someone else. Though he couldn't blame him for that. Reno had been in The Marlboro for nearly three hours and had only bought two drinks, if by some miracle Vincent showed up on his first night of the job he needed to be sober to have even a minimal chance of successfully following the former Turk.

Unfortunately staying sober didn't seem to be what the clientele of The Marlboro typically did. The other customers were in varying states but none of them were close to sobriety. They ranged from tipsy working towards drunk, passed out in a corner or vomiting in the bathroom.

It was no wonder Vincent chose to occasionally visit this bar. Nobody asked any questions. Including (for which Reno was very grateful) why he was choosing to remain sober.

Several hours and only two more drinks later the bar was closing. He left a tip even though the service hadn't been grate. It seemed to Reno that the best way to keep the people here happy would be to give them a little extra money since he certainly wasn't spending as much as the other customers on alcohol. Besides he could claim it as a mission expense and get it back so it was no bother to him. It would be a bother to him if people began to get suspicious of his presence at The Marlboro and started asking questions.

--

It had been a week since Reno had first started drinking at The Marlboro. He was getting sick of the place and everyone's questioning looks. Thankfully the tips he always left at the end of the night seemed to stop people from asking questions but it didn't stop them from looking at him like he was some sort of abnormality. If he chose not to get so drunk he couldn't remember his own name that was his business, not theirs.

He wondered how much longer he would have to frequent the place. From the reports it could be anything from a day to two months. Reno wasn't sure if he could handle two more months drinking there. He wasn't even sure if he could handle two more days. All he could do was pray that Vincent would be showing up some time very soon.

As he wondered how much longer he would have to drink in The Marlboro his prayers were answered as Vincent Valentine walked through the door.

_This chapter is unbetaed for various reasons that are a bit longwinded. Subsequent chapters will be betaed. So sorry if there are lots of mistakes. If you spot any and let me know I'll be sure to fix them as soon as possible. _

_All I want to say now is I'm not very happy with the end of this chapter. Something about it just doesn't sit right with me but I can't put my finger on what it is that I'm not happy about. But I really wanted to end with Vincent making his appearance so i didn't want to try changing it too much and lose that. If anyone has any thoughts on it I'd be happy to hear them, especially if you've got any ideas for improving it. _

_I will write the next chapter...but will I really write the next chapter._


	3. Setbacks

_Thanks to __Nydiwiel for betaing._

Cat and Mouse

Setbacks

Vincent surveyed the bar he visited when he felt the need to get drunk. The bar never disappointed him. True it was a dingy place that no doubt paled in comparison to Tifa's new bar but no one asked questions here and it always remained the same.

Except for this night.

Sat in one of the many shaded corners of the bar was an unfamiliar figure. He could make out nothing about the stranger's face because of the hood being worn that cast more shadows over the man's face.

It made him a little uneasy. But he had come here to get drunk and that was what he intended to do. There were some times when he just needed to forget who he was, what he was and the sins he had committed; if only for a few hours.

He made his way to the bar. No one spoke to him though he knew that all but the stranger would recognise him. Most people easily recognised him, and it was true of The Marlboro's patrons and only bartender even if the patrons did seem to get so drunk it surprised him if they could remember their own names.

"The usual please," Vincent asked at the bar. It was merely a courtesy, the bartender could remember what he ordered, everyone in this bar ordered the same drink every time they came. All Vincent needed to do was walk up to the bar to make his presence known and he would have been given his drink of choice.

With just a nod the bartender turned to the rows of strong liquor lined up behind him and began to poor Vincent's whisky, a double.

"Don't see new faces in here often," Vincent remarked as the bartender set down his drink.

"That guy's a strange one. He's been drinking here regularly for a week but never drinks much. He tips well though so I don't ask questions."

Vincent found this suspicious behaviour, at least for a Marlboro patron. He decided he would have to keep an eye on this person as he took a seat in another of the bar's many dark corners.

--

Reno watched as Vincent knocked back drink after drink. It was clear he intended to get as drunk as he had that night, if that night had ever happened. Reno still hadn't figured that much out. He was glad Vincent was planning on getting so drunk he probably wouldn't recognise his face in the bathroom mirror. Then again Reno had a hard time recognising his own due to the grime on it. It would make his job of following the ex-Turk easier.

He didn't care how great Vincent had been. Anybody that got as drunk as Marlboro patrons did was an easy target to follow as far as he was concerned.

He ordered two more drinks before the bar closed and everyone was thrown onto the streets. From an alley next to the entrance he watched Vincent mount a gold chocobo in clumsy manner. If he was honest Reno was amazed Vincent had even managed to mount the bird.

All he could do was watch in disappointment as Vincent rode off. There was no point even bothering to try following him. Nobody used gold chocobos unless they had mountains and or rivers to cross.

The only way he could follow Vincent now would be in a 'copter. Even though Vincent was very drunk he would notice a 'copter on his tail. Somebody needed to invent a super stealth mode for them.

He had no choice but to go home with nothing again which was frustrating because he had been so close. Vincent had been there, drunk out of his skull and in the perfect state to follow.

He threw his keys onto the desk and headed to the kitchen. He pulled a bottle of whisky and a glass from the cupboards and poured himself a large drink. He was going to get as drunk as Vincent to commiserate his first setback on the job.

--

Reno's head throbbed when he woke up. He had done a first rate job on his commiseration drinks. He wanted to curl back up in bed and go back to sleep. Unfortunately for him he had business to take care of at the office.

With a great effort he swung his legs over the side of his bed and dragged himself out of it. What he really needed now was his hang over cure, painkillers followed by a big fry-up. Something about greasy food always made that hazy pain, that for something that was hazy was far to apparent to ignore, fade away. And the painkillers also helped a lot.

He made his way to the small kitchen and grabbed some bacon, sausages and eggs from the fridge before routing through some drawers to find the painkillers. He knocked back two of the little white pills and set about making his food.

With everything fried to greasy perfection and some baked beans heated Reno slopped everything onto a plate. He'd never given a damn about presentation when it came to food; he was only going to eat it, who cared if it looked like a work of art before he did? Besides he was sure it wasn't possible to turn a greasy fry up into a work of art.

He felt slightly better with his stomach full. Now he just needed to lie down for an hour or so to let the hang over fully subside. He crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up over his head. He could take the slight sensation of suffocation as long as it was blocking out the light that was managing to seep through his curtains.

Reno woke with a start realising that at some point he had dozed off. He felt human enough now to deal with what he needed to do only having a slight headache left that a couple more painkillers would take care of within an hour. He found the pills easily this time and took two more before putting his suit on.

It was now two o'clock. Tseng would most likely be at the office unless he was at the hospital making a report to Rufus. Though Reno wasn't sure what he would have to report, he hadn't been able to call anything in on Vincent, from everything Rude had told there was nothing suspicious about Cloud and he was sure that as smart as Elena and Tseng were they hadn't got far in figuring out Hojo's research notes. He was sure any team of scientists would be baffled by anything Hojo wrote.

He grabbed a pair of sunglasses before he left. The headache may have been a lot better but he still wanted to keep contact with the light to a minimum. Feeling slightly odd with his partner's trademark eyewear on he left his apartment and headed to the office.

--

Tseng was seated behind his desk. At least that was what Reno assumed; he couldn't actually see his boss through the stacks of files that covered the usually orderly desk.

"Looks like someone's having fun," Reno stated.

Tseng's head appeared from a stack of files. "Do you have anything to report Reno? I'm busy if you hadn't noticed."

"Nothing to report, did manage to spot the elusive Vincent Valentine last night but he made his getaway on a gold chocobo. So I'm gonna need one if I'm gonna be able to follow him when he next shows up."

Tseng nodded. "I'll get onto it and call you when everything's been arranged."

"Thanks boss," Reno said as he turned to leave, raising his hand in casual wave goodbye.

Back at his apartment Reno flicked through TV channels and flipped through magazines and files before getting the call from Tseng two hours later. The owner of the chocobo stables on the outskirts of the Midgar ruins had agreed to lend him a gold chocobo but Reno was to take very good care of it.

Reno had figured that would be the case, after all gold ones were rare. Luckily for him the giant birds seemed to like him and he'd never had any problems with them before. Not like Rude who was terrible with them, Reno had had plenty fun teasing his partner over the fact that he struggled to mount a chocobo.

He changed out of his suit into some more casual clothing. Vincent would have been sure to recognise him if he hadn't taken some basic precautions to keep his identity concealed.

Dressed in jeans and a hooded jacket Reno left his apartment for the second time that day. It was quite a trek to the chocobo stables and he was sure the owner was going to give him a long lecture about caring for gold chocobos before he could leave with the bird.

A couple of hours later he was at the stables, half listening to the lecture he'd anticipated. Some of the points were pretty general, things he already knew but he made sure to listen whenever he picked up on a new piece of information. If he didn't return this chocobo in pristine condition Tseng was going to have his ass.

With his new mount Oola the trip back to Edge was much quicker. He soon found himself outside the Marlboro, tying the bird to a pole near the bar being careful to pick one as far from the one Vincent had used as possible.

He entered the bar and ordered his first drink then settled in for another night of pointless waiting.

--

Vincent stood for a moment at the door of the Marlboro. His curiosity had been piqued by the stranger at the bar the other night. His instincts told him that this new presence had something to do with him.

It wasn't that he was being arrogant but of all the Marlboro patrons he was certainly the one with the most colourful background. He didn't know what this man wanted with him but he figured the best way to find out would be come back and see what happened this time.

So for a following night Vincent pushed open the door to the dingy bar to see where his instincts would lead.

_Sorry about the wait on this. I've had some really rough times over the past year, just dealing with them and uni work have been really hard for me. But I'm back, at least for the summer months._

_In Final Fantasy tradition I named the chocobo after a Star Wars character. Just a random piece of useless information for you._

_Reviews would be greatly appreciated. _

_I will write the next chapter…but will I really write the next chapter? _


	4. Caught Out

_Thanks to Nydiwiel for betaing_

Cat and Mouse

Caught Out

Vincent entered the bar to find it as he expected, almost as he had always used to find it with it's one new addition. He made his way across to the bar disturbing the thin layer of dust that was settled on the floor. He was sure the only thing that prevented a heavier layer from settling was the constant movement across it.

The bar had an unusual shape, octagonal. Vincent was sure it was to create more corners for the patrons to hide in. Tables littered the floor between the entrance and the bar directly opposite it, each with two chairs. Vincent had always thought it pointless to have two since people only came here alone.

He got his drink and went to his usual seat at the corner booth closest to the bar on the left hand side. It was an unspoken rule that if he was in the bar he had that seat. Vincent wasn't sure how it started but he could only assume most people were intimidated enough by him to make sure he had something as simple as a seat.

The corner booths had the only comfortable seating in the bar but they were only comfortable by Marlboro standards. The burgundy velvet that covered the thin foam on the bench and broke up the wood panelling that ran the length of the bar on the bottom half to provide back support was ripped in places exposing the yellowing foam.

Damaged as the bench seats were they did at least match the upper half of the walls in colour. The walls at least looked presentable to most eyes or so Vincent assumed. Though his own eyes could see the faint liquid marks that had come from drunken fights with imaginary assailants or uncoordinated attempts at knocking back drinks that had both resulted in glasses being smashed against the walls.

The stranger was sat at one of the booths opposite his. That meant he had arrived early. With the exception of the one Vincent currently occupied the booths were fair game to any patron as long as they got to the bar early enough to claim one.

As Vincent watched the stranger he could feel the other man's eyes on him. It confirmed his suspicions that whatever this man wanted it clearly involved him. Vincent had made his move, now all he could do was get drunk as usual and see what move his opponent would make in this game they seemed to be playing.

--

Reno could not believe his luck that Vincent had turned up again so soon. Every account of Vincent's visits to The Marlboro made it clear that it was very rare for Vincent to turn up two nights in a row. It had happened before but it was a rare enough occurrence for Reno to be suspicious now.

Either Vincent was on a bender or he had grown suspicious about his presence. He had been in the place long enough to know that the presence of someone new, especially someone that stayed sober, was something that would draw attention. All he could do was drink his whisky slowly and see how events would unfold.

He watched Vincent over the next few hours while the bar was still open. All the gunman did was knock back one drink after another just as he had the other night. It carried on till closing time with only the occasional interruption to the routine when either one of them went to the toilet.

Come closing time they were all thrown out onto the streets. Reno watched as Vincent mounted his chocobo with the drunken grace he was sure only the ex-Turk could muster. This time he had Oola to help him follow and he hurried to his own mount.

As they left Edge Vincent's chocobo headed northwest making for the coast. Vincent was slumped forward over his chocobo. It looked like he might be drifting to sleep but it was hard to tell. Reno didn't think he looked to be slumped forward far enough to actually be asleep but it was possible he was just struggling to hold his body upright in his drunken state.

The chocobo Vincent rode was good. Whether Vincent was falling asleep or just too drunk to ride it didn't seem to be making any difference to the bird. Reno highly doubted Vincent was giving any direction to the chocobo yet it seemed to be making it's way along the route round the shallows on the small island between the east and north continents with experienced ease.

They left the shallows and returned to solid land once more. The chocobos made their way through the Sleeping Forest. Reno could only assume they were on their way to the City of the Ancients or the crater. Either seemed a likely place for Vincent to spend his time, they were both deserted and held important connections to what had happened.

He supposed the City of the Ancients made the most sense; it was the place of the two of them that was most liveable. Reno couldn't imagine someone staying at the crater but then he supposed that Vincent wasn't just someone. He had slept in a coffin for years, for all Reno knew the gunman could find the crater adequate for any of his needs.

The debate over where their final destination would be ended as Vincent dismounted on the outskirts of the City of the Ancients leaving his chocobo to roam and graze at its leisure. Reno tied Oola up away from where Vincent had dismounted. He didn't dare let her wander as Vincent had with his since his job could depend on the bird's well being. He made sure to tie her up near a plentiful supply of grass and left a few nuts behind

With Oola taken care of Reno crept into the City of the Ancients after Vincent.

--

They never stopped goading him. Galian Beast and Chaos were right about him never being able to drown them out by drowning his sorrows. He had to try though; he had to do something to at least try to drown out their voices or at least make them quieter.

The drinking had never managed to shut them up but he had come to need it nonetheless.

The trouble was they knew everything. They knew how he had failed Lucrecia and they knew that nothing he could do would make amends for it.

"_You can never keep us quiet," _Galian Beast goaded.

"**He's right. We know it all and we'll never let you forget,"** Chaos continued.

"As if I could ever forget," Vincent said. Even though the voices were in his head and they would be able to hear him through his thoughts Vincent always spoke aloud to them. Somehow it made the situation seem almost normal even though it was anything but.

"**We know but there's no harm in reminding you every now and then."**

"Every now and then? You remind every opportunity you get and I don't need it."

"_We know you don't but it's fun for us."_

"**She died because of you, because you couldn't do what you knew you should."**

"_A gunman without a gun. Who ever heard of anything so ridiculous?"_

"You think I don't know I should have taken my gun."

"**We know that. After all we know everything you know."**

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Vincent stumbled through the doorway to the spiral house with their laughter echoing in his head. It was dying out, telling him that he was falling asleep. He made it to the bed as his eyelids were drifting shut, finally silencing the laughter in his head.

--

Reno woke from where he had settled in behind the spiral house when he heard signs of movement. Peeking round the side of the house he saw Vincent leave. The gunman showed no signs of being hung over; he made no attempt to shield his eyes from the sunlight and walked with the confidence of a man that hadn't been trying to destroy his liver the night before.

He was one lucky bastard for that. It made Reno a little jealous but from what he had heard last night there were certainly things not to be jealous of. He was going to have to keep an eye on that, it certainly could turn out to be something worth reporting.

Reno had no idea what he had overheard the other night. Did Vincent have some underlying psychological problems as a result of being experimented on by Hojo or had it merely been drunken ramblings?

That was why he had decided it would be best to wait. Until he knew more about what he had heard there was really nothing to report. He had to have more information before he told Tseng anything. There was no point raising a false alarm, that would only make his boss think he was incompetent. He really didn't need that.

For now all he could do was follow Vincent and see if he could unearth any more information from his observations.

Reno waited out of sight as Vincent whistled at the outskirts of the city. Within a few minutes his well-trained chocobo came trotting up to him. When Vincent had moved off he went to retrieve Oola, giving the bird a few nuts before he mounted her and set off following the trail left by Vincent.

Once again they headed to the small island between the main continents. It certainly seemed to provide a good point to access the rest of Gaia from by chocobo, creating shallows that made it possible to traverse the world. Rather than heading to the east continent though they turned to the west one instead.

He could only assume they were on their way to Nieblheim. It was the place on the west continent that held the most connections for Vincent. He was surprised when Vincent stopped several miles short of Niebleheim.

There was nothing there as far as Reno could see. Mountains and a river, Reno could think of no reason why Vincent would want to come here. He held back just out of sight and watched as Vincent walked into the side of the mountain, a cave.

Reno looked all around him trying to find somewhere to leave Oola that wasn't too exposed. Unfortunately the area was too open, no vegetation grew on the sides of the mountains. The best he could hope for was a deep crag. He walked Oola quietly past Vincent's chocobo on the lookout for anywhere that might be able to hide the chocobo.

He was fortunate to find a crag not too far behind the cave but far enough that Vincent shouldn't notice unless Oola decided to start warbling. That would tip the ex-Turk off. Reno left some nuts with the bird hoping they would placate her enough that she wouldn't make a sound.

It was easy to climb out of the crag. It was fairly deep, deep enough to keep the chocobo well concealed but had more than enough hand and foot holds making it a simple and quick climb. Reno brushed himself off a little once he was out. He had never taken too much pride in his appearance, something Elena had reprimanded him for on several occasions so a bit of dust didn't bother him too much.

Once out and as cleaned off as he cared to be Reno settled above the entrance of the cave under the gaze of Vincent's chocobo. Crouched over the entrance Reno strained to hear anything that might be of importance.

--

Vincent sat in silence in the cave or as much in silence as he ever could get when Galian Beast and Chaos chose to taunt him, which was frequently. They often tried to get a rise out of him but only ever succeeded when he was drunk. That never stopped him from drinking and it never stopped them from trying.

He hated to hear them talking about Hojo and Sephiroth and despised them mentioning Lucrecia. But those three people and his involvement with them were their favourite topic of conversation.

They kept on about them for what felt like hours but he knew it was much less than that. Then they grew fed up. It always happened after he had been drunk and they had managed to achieve their aim. They lost their patience for keeping the taunts going much quicker, usually it would end with them shutting up sooner. This day was different though.

"_I think the whole experience has made him rusty," _Galian Beast commented trying to change tack but Vincent knew what he was getting at right away.

"**More than rusty. Nobody ever managed to follow you successfully before?"**

"And no one's managed it now. I was just thinking it might be time to greet my stalker and find out what he wants with me."

It shut them up. For all the access to his mind they had they never seemed to be interested in anything but his memories; anything that they could use against him. For once it had worked in his favour and he had actually managed to shut them up.

Vincent crept to the edge of the cave silently. Despite how clumsy his boots looked it was an easy task for Vincent to make no sound. He stepped out in one smooth stride and looked up to find the red-haired Turk, his mystery stalker.

"Reno isn't it?" Vincent questioned with a smirk to surprised expression of the red head.

_This chapter was a nightmare to write since my laptop has decided to be temperamental and shut down whenever it feels like it. I'm not sure how much stuff got lost if word didn't recover it but I think it was quite a bit. It certainly drained me will to write and broke my concentration when I decided I needed to try saving after every couple of paragraphs. Got there in the end though._

_I edited the previous chapter after I realised you can only get to Lucrecia's cave by gold chocobo. I haven't played the game in ages so have forgot some of the details but Oola and the other one are gold now. _

_As always reviews are very much appreciated and make me very happy. _

_I will write the next chapter...but will I really write the next chapter?_


	5. Compromise

_The explanation for my long absence will come at the end cos it's pretty long. _

Cat and Mouse

Compromise

"_Reno isn't it?" Vincent questioned with a smirk to the surprised expression of the red head._

Reno looked down at Vincent and knew he was screwed. He had known when he was first assigned the mission that he wouldn't be able to avoid detection for the duration of the mission; especially since there was no specified end date, that usually meant it was going to be a long one. But he had hoped he might last longer than this.

Tseng was going to be very disappointed and that was going to be a pain in his ass. No doubt Rude was doing better with Cloud just to make it that little bit worse for him. Tseng would be able to tell him how well Rude was doing and use it as an excuse to question him and his abilities.

He had no choice but to grin back at Vincent and wave in response.

"Let me guess Rufus wants you to keep an eye on me? Make sure Hojo's experiment isn't going to lose it and try to kill everyone," Vincent stated.

The ex-Turk had managed to hit the nail on the head, as Reno knew he would. Anyone could have made a half decent guess as to what his assignment was, it was obvious that Vincent would know since he knew the ins and outs of the Turks. There was no point trying to deny anything, Vincent would no doubt see through any cover story he could concoct in ten seconds. Even if he had time to come up with something plausible Vincent would probably see through it. Reno couldn't see any point in even trying to cover up what he was doing.

"Yeah that's pretty much it."

"Let me guess someone else, I'd say your partner Rude, is following Cloud."

"Spot on."

"How long are you meant to tail me?"

"Don't know, till I'm told to stop."

"I'm not having you stalk me for an indefinite period of time."

"Sorry but you know how it is, a job's a job."

"I'm not a threat to anyone, so you can go to Rufus' hospital bed, tell him that and take an indefinite vacation."

"You know how this works, you get a job you do your job. Unfortunately there's no indefinite vacation in this line of work. Don't tell me you'd forgot that?"

"Then how about permanent?" Vincent questioned as he unholstered his gun and took aim at Reno before the red head had time to react.

Reno shrugged. "If you're gonna shoot then do it," he instructed.

"I should have known better than to point a gun at someone used to it," Vincent sighed as he lowered the weapon.

"So what are we gonna do about this?"

–

Vincent should have known Shin-Ra would pull a stunt like this. He had worked for them once so he knew better than anyone what they got up to. He used to get his pay cheque for doing exactly the kind of thing Reno was doing to him. He had never realised how frustrating it must have been for those he had followed until he became the one being tracked.

He should have been ready for this. Should have been prepared to deal with the Turk before he was right in front of him. Especially this Turk, there were three other members that he could have been staring in the eyes right now so why did it have to be Reno? He didn't know if the Turk remembered anything from the night before the final battle with Sephiroth, he certainly wasn't giving anything away but given the choice Vincent wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

There were two options available to him. He could try to ditch Reno. For him it would be easy to lose the red head but that wouldn't be the end of it. Reno would follow him, the Turk would persistently track him down because it was his job. Meaning he would have to put up with being followed and knowing he was being followed. The other option was to put up with Reno and let him carry out his assignment.

Neither choice was appealing to him.

For the time being he chose to ignore Reno. Vincent knew he had to handle this but for now he wanted to pretend it wasn't happening, he wanted the entire scenario to disappear. That wasn't going to happen so he just walked past Reno to his chocobo. If it wouldn't actually go away he could at least try to temporarily make it vanish.

"Hey, where are you going?" Reno protested.

He continued to ignore Reno as he mounted his chocobo. Reno's voice was just background noise to him as he rode away.

It didn't seem that a minute had passed when Vincent heard the sounds of Reno's pursuit. Whether he liked it or not he was going to have to deal with this. He was going to have to talk things out with the Turk.

–

They were back at the Forgotten Capital and Vincent hadn't put a bullet in him. As far as Reno was concerned things were going well. He hadn't been bluffing when Vincent had pulled his gun on him earlier. He would take a bullet for his job, he wouldn't have taken the job in the first place if he wasn't prepared for it; he just preferred not to.

So even though there was a good chance he was going to get shot for his actions Reno pushed open the door and followed Vincent inside. He had to do it no matter what might happen else he would be failing his assignment. It was true he enjoyed slacking off but when it was necessary he could be professional.

"Get out," Vincent demanded.

"You know I can't just leave," Reno explained. "You've done the job, you know how it goes."

"Just give me some time to think about this."

"Ok but I'm not going far so you shouldn't try running."

–

No matter what he tried Vincent couldn't think of a way out of the predicament he was in. Reno knew his instinct was to run so even if he tried to get away now he wouldn't get far. Even if he tried in the night the Turk would start tracking as soon as he noticed he was gone. The thought of being followed all around Gaia didn't appeal to him.

Neither did putting up with Reno at the Forgotten Capital. He didn't spend time with Avalanche, the people he had saved the planet with. Spending time with a former enemy who was now; well he didn't know what Shin-Ra and the Turks were to them anymore. There was no more Avalanche against Shin-Ra or Avalanche against the Turks. Reno was now just a simple annoyance not an annoyance that stood between them and Sephiroth.

He could describe Reno as a simple annoyance as much as he wanted but the truth was it wasn't that simple. There was no way it could be that simple after what he had done to the Turk. Even if Reno had no memory of it happening he did and that made everything more complicated than it needed to be. Vincent was sure that night was now the second biggest regret in his life after Lucrecia.

As much as he hated it Vincent could only see one solution for the time being; that was to reach some sort of compromise with Reno. He opened the door to find Reno sat just opposite the building leaning against a tree.

"We should talk," Vincent stated.

Reno nodded as he jumped up and followed after Vincent. "Guess we should," he agreed. "So you come to any sort conclusion about all this?"

"You're not going to drop this till you get called off assignment are you?"

"Not a chance, you know how it goes."

"Thought not."

"So..."

"So the best thing would be a compromise. I'll tolerate you being around here but I want space. You don't need to follow me all the time. If you can't agree to this then I'm not sure how we should resolve the situation."

"It's fine by me, I'll give you space as long as you don't stray too far."

"Don't ever follow me to that cave again."

"What's the big deal about a cave? It's just y'know... a cave."

"That's my only condition. It you can't agree to that I will put a bullet through you."

Vincent could only hope the tone of his voice conveyed how serious he was about this. That cave was personal to him. Even though the other members of Avalanche had agreed to not return there, he would rather they had never found out about it in the first place but Yuffie had been pretty insistent about exploring everywhere for materia. He couldn't complain since he had benefited from it but he had made his feelings about anyone returning there clear.

Reno sighed. "Ok I guess I can agree to that."

–

_I know this is short and not that great but I figured you guys have waited long enough for this. I apologise for you having to waiting ages and then getting this in return for your patience. _

_So as for my long absence. When I went into my final year of uni I was more focused on that and only managed to write about 2 chapters before my 15,000 word dissertation made it nearly impossible for me to continue fic writing. Then I found out my grandma had terminal lung cancer and had to deal with that and keep up with my uni work so fic writing went completely out the window. As a result of that my sister moved her wedding forward 2 years cos my grandma had been given between 2-8 months depending on if she was well enough to have treatment. Unfortunately she passed away the day I handed my dissertation in, which was just over a month before the wedding. But we kept the early date since lots of stuff had been paid for, so we were dealing with rushed wedding preparations. In the end that was a really great day, I randomly met my childhood hero cos he was staying at the hotel we had the wedding at and caught up with family and friends and I got very, very drunk. Then there was my graduation. Since then I've been desperately job/house hunting, which is a task made a bit more difficult because I'm not in the city where I'm looking for a job/house. But got the house sorted, now I just need a job. Oh and whilst most of this was going on I started to see a guy who ended up screwing me over (like they always do) so I was a tiny bit heartbroken for a bit. I feel like things are calming down now so I'm trying to get back to writing._

_Hopefully this explains my long absence and it's also kind of why this was a bit crappy. I'm still trying to get back into a fic writing frame of mind as opposed to dissertation and I'm still working out a few issues from everything that I just explained. But I'm trying. Hopefully the next chapter will be better and if I ever get round to it I'll try re-writing this one. So if you've got any suggestions for improvements you can leave them in a review or pm or carrier pigeon. _


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